Horde damage avoidance: The RAW rules for hordes states that damage dealt from hordes cannot be dodged or parried in melee and can only be dodged at range.

I understand the fluff and mechanic reasons behind this, but it does make it very difficult to include non-Astartes characters with the horde rules as they stand. It also marginalizes the dodge/parry skills and makes melee combat at higher levels even less effective than ranged combat. So I propose this: when being attacked at range a character may make a dodge attempt, this attempt will not negate all the fire that is being focused at the player but reduce damage by a number equal to the degrees of success. The number value will be 2 points per DoS without power armour and 1 point in power armour. A character may make as many dodge attempts as would normally be allowed but never more than one per attack. With a shield: A parry attempt may be made to reduce ranged damage with a shield or a weapon with the relevant talents. With a combat shield or weapon the ranged damage may be reduced by 1 point per DoS. A storm shield may reduce damage by 2 points per DoS. A character may make as many parry attempts as would normally be allowed but never more than one per attack. Weapons and shields work similarly in melee combat. This also has the added benefit of making the shield a more tactically sound decision as they could use the buff in my opinion.